Bring On the Rain
by Moonchild10
Summary: One rainy morning, Tamaki takes the first and final opportunity for happiness that his grandmother presents him with. One shot, Tamaki x Haruhi.


_Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran. _

_This is my version of the manga's ending X3 It was written for Stefanie's birthday._

_As far as the fact that it says "obaasan" in the letter and "grandmother" in the rest of the story isn't really significant XD I just thought it sounded more... right in the context of a letter. Also, I adored the way the anime used symbolism and the metaphor of the carriage and light bulbs and everything to get points across, and so I tried my hand at the same thing. I hope at least one person can tell what everything is supposed to represent XD  
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On the morning Tamaki learns the news, the sun stops shining. By the time Haruhi finds him, it is overcast. He sits on the park bench and she sits silently beside him and watches as his outstretched fingers grasp blindly for the falling petals of the cherry blossoms. Gently he catches them between his fingers and caresses their thin silken membranes for only a moment before letting them drift away on the breeze.

"Grandmother loved days like this," he says softly, and Haruhi makes a soft sound beside him, something that sounds like sympathy and fear.

"What will you do?" she asks him, and the timidity in her voice shows that for once, she is just as vulnerable as he is. He wonders for a moment if he were to turn and look at her if he would see a sense of weakness in her eyes. This scares him out of turning his head. He settles instead for reaching for another elusive petal.

"I don't know," slowly, he lets out a breath. "Grandmother expressed her wishes that I not become the heir to the Suoh Corporation in the hours before she passed away." he breathes in deep, the soft scent of fresh spring and the incoming rain, and that faint glimmer of soft femininity that is Haruhi's shampoo. "Maybe I'll go to France."

"You could see your mother…" Haruhi says softly, and Tamaki smiles. In this moment, anyone else in the world who cares for him would have expressed their wishes that he not leave them, but Haruhi is different. If he did not feel she understood him completely before, he certainly does now. He turns his head to smile at her.

"Thank you," he whispers, and the girl looks slightly baffled, cocking her head a little in that adorable way that makes his heart skip a beat even now.

"What are you thanking me for, senpai?" she asks.

"For understanding me. And… for coming here after me."

"It's nothing," Haruhi assures him. "I had to make sure that you… were okay. I'm sorry… to hear about your grandmother."

"It's better for her, really. I'm not as sad as I imagined I would be. She wasn't a very happy person, but maybe in death she will be," looking to the sky, he nodded slightly to himself. "And besides, this way… she won't have to worry anymore."

"You're an amazing person, Tamaki-senpai," Haruhi says very matter-of-factly, and he smiles a little, pleased, and blushes faintly.

"The fact that you think so… means everything to me," he stares at her rather openly for a moment before standing up from the bench, leaning into the wind. The petals swirl in riots around his face, kicked from the trees by the breeze, and they brush his cheeks with an almost tenderness. "I'm going home now. I need to figure out what to do."

"This all means we can see each other again," Haruhi muses aloud, and Tamaki smiles at her a little sadly.

"For a while, at least," he says as she stands up and he ruffles her hair in that old, fatherly way of his. "I'm not exactly sure… where I'll be."

"Take your time, senpai," they cross paths as she walks past him to head in the direction of her apartment, and she smiles. "When you figure it all out, I'll still be right where you left me."

"Thank you, Haruhi."

As he heads for home in the opposite direction, the rain begins to fall.

The main Suoh mansion seems oddly quiet without his grandmother, long passageways devoid of some sort of life they have usually taken on until this morning. Tamaki wanders the halls, feeling like a sheep who has lost his shepherd. He has no idea where to go and he searches blindly, groping as though he wanders in the dark.

"Tamaki-sama!" the voice of one of the maids cutting into the silence saves Tamaki's sanity, and he whirls around to face her. Almost immediately the young woman presses a cream-colored envelope into his hands. "I was instructed to make sure this was delivered to you."

"Thank you," Tamaki's smile is a bit forced as he stares down at the envelope. The Suoh family crest is emblazoned rather grandly on the front. He takes the envelope to his bedroom and simply stares at it for a moment. The flap is sealed with violet wax pressed into the shape of a rose. Everything about the envelope is ostentatious, and his hands feel large and clumsy around it. He knows without a doubt that it is from his grandmother, and it is this that keeps him from opening it for a moment. Rather than focusing on the task at hand, he moves to the large picture windows that cover nearly one entire wall of his room and stares out into the dreary world. The rain is pounding against the glass now, and the trees shake violently with the force of the wind. Slowly, one fingernail slips beneath the purple wax. The letter is written on heavy off-white paper again bearing the Suoh crest. It takes a moment to be able to make sense of the words.

_Tamaki,_

If you are reading these words, I am either gone or not long for this world. If you have not already been informed, I will use this letter to tell you that I have chosen for you not to inherit the Suoh company.

All of this time, I have been cold to you in an attempt to make you strong enough to run the company when your father retires, just as I did to him before you. Things such as this cannot be done with optimism and enthusiasm alone. It takes a strong will and a level head that I fear you will never possess, but that is not the reason I have chosen for you not to inherit the company.

Please remember that there are things far more important than running a company, which is something I had long forgotten. Though our marriage was arranged by our parents when we were children, I grew to love your grandfather very much. That kind of love is the thing that can keep us from becoming bitter in our old age as I have done. People like us, people with wealth and privilege and status rarely are able to take the opportunity to marry for love. Someone who acts as head of such a prestigious company, as I am sure you have realized, can never dream of marrying someone of common lineage. This is the reason I have chosen to revoke your status as Suoh beneficiary.

Though I do not approve of her and I would still do everything in my power to keep her away from you if I were alive today, it is clear to all of us that the Fujioka girl is the one you love. So now, I will give you one opportunity I never had. Though someday, your father may go against my wishes and name you heir despite my forbidding it, at this moment you are free from the burden of becoming someone that everyone else wants you to be. You will make your own decisions, grow up, and do the things that you feel you need to do. But at this moment, you have the chance to be with her. I hope that you will make the decision that you believe is the right one.

Despite all that has happened, I am still quite proud of the young man you have become.

Best wishes,  
Obaasan

Tamaki lowers the letter to his chest, aware of the fact that he is crying. The tears slide silent and warm down his cheeks, and he does not wipe them away. He allows them to come, for they are cleansing, and slowly he closes his eyes and when he opens them, they are directed toward the stormy sky.

"Thank you, Grandmother," he whispers. He takes a moment to breathe, to think, to find his center. When he speaks aloud again, he is still crying, but his voice does not shake. "You really did only want… what was best for me."

The sky in his vision flares a bright electric white for a split second, making him jump in surprise. The sound of a clap of thunder makes the letter slide from his hand and to the carpet, where it lies and then lights up with another white flash.

"_Haruhi_," he gasps, clenching his fists. In a flash he is out of his room and down the hallway, his feet flying across the perfect carpet. "This time… I won't break that promise!"

Outside, the spring rain is warm and heavy on his face, and in the flashes of lightning he can see the world clearly and differently than ever before. _'This is the way it needs to be!'_

"Tamaki-sama!" shouts his driver from the doorway. "Get in the car!"

"I… thank you anyway!" there is something exhilaratingly new about running at breakneck speed through the rain, feeling the water soak his hair and plaster it to his forehead, feeling it saturate the cloth of his buttonup and make it stick to his skin. Puddles that form rapidly splash brightly in the flashes of lightning beneath his racing feet, and for a moment, he can throw his head back and smile. He feels free, impossibly so. There is no burden that rests on his heart as he runs toward the girl he has always kept coming back to, no matter what.

_"Thank you, Grandmother. Thank you… for this feeling."_

The door to Haruhi's apartment is unlocked, and he bursts in desperately, his eyes searching the small space. "Haruhi!" he shouts amid the crash of thunder that follows him into the apartment. A tiny whimper gives her away; she is crouched under the kitchen table, and he crawls into the small space with her and though he is soaked to the bone and she is warm and dry, he throws his arms urgently around her and pulls her safely against his chest. "I'm here now. I'm here…"

"Tamaki-senpai," she whispers softly. "You came here for me…"

"And I always will," he says with such devotion that he hears her make a small noise of surprise. She is shaking but the motion slows more with every second pressed against him, and he can feel her slowly beginning to settle. "I promise. I'll never leave you alone when you need me again. Never."

"I thought you were going to France," Haruhi reminds him, and Tamaki presses his face gently into her hair and smiles.

"Haruhi, before… I told you that I wasn't sure where I'd be. But I was wrong. I know exactly where I'll be in the near future. And I know exactly where I'll _always_ be…" he presses a soft kiss to her hair, and she jumps slightly. "Right here. With you."

"You don't have to do that," Haruhi states. She has calmed down to a level that is more composed than he has ever seen in her during a thunderstorm and he can smile widely, knowing it is because of him. It makes him want to laugh out loud. "You don't have to give up your hopes and your dreams and your future just to be there when I'm afraid."

"Haruhi…" Tamaki pulls back and looks her straight in the eye in the small, dim space beneath the table. She is dressed in a soft sweater that is rapidly getting damp against him, but she does not seem to mind. Her hair is slightly messy and her glasses are askew on her face, which is pale from the fear from the storm. She looks absolutely perfect to him. "It's not a matter of having to. It's a matter of _wanting_ to. Every hope and dream, every wish I could ever hope to make… is here with you." he sucks in a breath and gathers all of his courage as he removes the glasses gently from her face and closes his eyes. "I love you, Haruhi."

When he kisses her then, setting her glasses aside and cupping her soft cheeks with his damp hands, everything falls perfectly into place. He can feel his world shift around all of the past troubles and the fears and worries that he would never be able to be here with her like this again, and when the dust settles in his head there is Haruhi and Haruhi only. _'I will always love this girl. I know it in my heart.'_

It takes Haruhi a moment to kiss him back, but she does it with earnest that leaves no doubt in his mind that kissing her like this without warning is alright. Her hands reach up to hold onto his wrists, and he strokes her cheeks gently, his heart pounding and feeling like it might shatter into a million glittering, smiling pieces in his chest. The hands that she uses to hold his wrists are trembling, but she kisses him as innocently and surely as he could have imagined.

"I love you too." her words are so simple, but they instill in him a kind of joy he has never experienced in his life. Every part of his being warms despite being wet, and he smiles and he holds her as tightly as he safely can, actually giggling a bit in the face of the sunshine that worms its way into his heart. Haruhi is smiling at him when he pulls back, and he grins back. It feels as though somehow, though he still has the many trials and tribulations of growing up ahead of him, this is the kind of moment he has been waiting for his entire life. Nothing has ever felt so magical.

Together, he and Haruhi venture out into the rain, which is light and gentle now. The thunder and lighting have subsided, and it feels safe and wonderful to walk together with their fingers laced through the gleaming puddles and across the wet sidewalks. Haruhi looks absolutely content beside him and as she squeezes his hand slightly, he swears his heart will burst.

"I'm glad… that you'll be here, senpai. I'm glad that we'll be here together."

"Together. I love the way it sounds when you say it," Tamaki says with a wide smile, and Haruhi blushes a bit but does not falter.

"I guess I'll have to start wearing contacts again," she says pensively as though she is thinking aloud. "Kissing with glasses on is probably really hard."

At this, Tamaki starts to laugh. He is not sure why, but he cannot seem to stop, and, fueled by his joy, he giggles as they walk down the sidewalk together, hand in hand, and he feels for the first time in his life as though he has finally found a moment and a person with which he really, truly belongs.

He is aware of the warmth of a ray of sunlight as it finally breaks through the clouds and falls on his cheek.

_Tomorrow's another day  
And I am not afraid  
So bring on the rain_


End file.
